Recap: TYPO3 University Days 2017 (T3UD17)

In the beginning, a couple of friends had an idea. Then the i's were dotted and the t's were crossed: the Academic Committee was founded in 2016. Their aim? To strengthen the bonds between higher education institutions, to establish more common ground with the TYPO3 makers, and to create an opportunity for strengthening involvement of the educational sector in the TYPO3 project. In other words: to become stronger as a whole. Their “stage”? The TYPO3 University Days (T3UD). Mission well on its way and evolving in a good way, I’d say!

If you’re an academic member and your university is running a TYPO3 website - and there are an awful lot of good reasons for universities to do so - then the annual TYPO3 University Days (T3UD) are the place to be. The same goes for those involved in making or working with TYPO3.

T3UD: bringing universities and TYPO3 together

This event has filled an important gap. A substantial market share of 60% of German higher education institutions use the open source content management system TYPO3 for their website. A number that speaks for itself, and it was high time to bring the two together.

Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and TYPO3’s Academic Committee recently joined forces a second time to take on this year’s TYPO3 University Days - T3UD17 - in the center of Germany again, just south of Frankfurt am Main on the university’s campus.

At the end of September, more than 120 participants from different countries came together to spend two days sharing information, networking and discussing latest developments. TYPO3 representatives from the TYPO3 Association, its commercial arm (TYPO3 GmbH) and agencies had the opportunity of engaging with dedicated staff members from leading Austrian, Swiss and German universities.

I was one of the TYPO3 Association members there. Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to attend various T3 events: camps and conferences, the DevDays and even snowboarding with some of the T3 crowd. One could presume that I’d know how the wind blows. But being my first time round at a T3UD, I didn’t have clue what to expect. I knew that speakers and participants from well-established higher educational institutions were going to be there, and I knew that I’d meet some of my TYPO3 friends and acquaintances. So I arrived on campus feeling curious and also pretty excited!

What I experienced at T3UD17 in Darmstadt exceeded all my expectations.

T3UD was successful first time round in 2016 and has taken a huge leap forward this year. The conference was of high quality and offered a very practical approach. You can find a list of topics discussed at this year’s meeting here. I was impressed by the appropriate diversity of speakers and the right selection of people attending made great networking opportunities. We also had the right space in order to have personal 1-2-1 meetings and to socialize in the evening. And the overall organization was wonderful.

Smart Collaboration

Academic members and TYPO3 representatives worked hand in hand to shape the event. There was a diversity of speakers, with a good balance between the two, providing insights from both the maker’s as well as the user’s side.

As one participant confessed to me: “Although last year’s event was interesting, I also found parts of it to be a drag. To be honest, I didn’t actually want to come again this year and had to be persuaded. Which is fortunate, because this here is truly awesome! You see, last year's event was predominated by TYPO3 representatives, but this year there are also lots of representatives from universities sharing their knowledge, experience and know-how. It’s this nice balance between the universities and TYPO3 which has enriched this event in a truly inspiring way. I’ll be back, that’s for sure!”

T3UD is quickly evolving and becoming an incredible valuable opportunity for both universities as well as TYPO3 representatives.

I’d like to express my sincere thanks for the chance to be part of this special event. TYPO3 is grateful to all the sponsors for their generosity, to Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences for hosting us so well, to the organizational team who helped bring this good work on its way and of course to all of the enthusiastic participants. And we are grateful for the trust and confidence universities have shown TYPO3. We look forward to our tasks and the further joint venture. Thank you!

T3UD18 will be hosted by the Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur in Mainz and T3UD19 by Universität Wien in Austria. If you’re involved in higher education and would like to support TYPO3, consider opting for a membership. Membership comes in various packages and with many benefits, but most importantly, it is an amazing opportunity to align your university with our message of improving the collaboration between universities, TYPO3 and agencies.

Conclusion

When assigned teams stick their heads together to decide on which content management system to choose for their enterprise’s website, there is a lot to take into consideration. TYPO3 CMS is powerful, it’s flexible and it has the structure that it takes to develop complex websites which are nevertheless user-friendly.

Bringing the two parties together - namely the software makers and universities using the software - to synthesize and evolve was a natural step and last year the joint event TYPO3 University Day first came to be. From the beginning, it was an outstanding success that is rapidly evolving and strengthening business relationships between the users and the makers. T3UD is a great opportunity for meeting like-minded people, sharing knowledge and experience and for establishing new business relationships as well as friendships. See you next year?

About the Author

Petra Hasenau

CEO, cybercraft media manufactory, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany

Founder and CEO of cybercraft media manufactory, organizer of the annual TYPO3 User eXperience Week in Festenburg, and since April 2017, also member of the TYPO3 Expert Advisory Board.
After working as an industrial manager and logistics specialist for both national and international enterprises and business consultancies, Petra first experienced the world of TYPO3 in 2009. She was fascinated from the start. Since then she's been attending as many community events as possible - to spread the word and because, as she puts it: “the TYPO3 Community rocks!”